Lukas Haffert Appointed Professor at Bremen University

MPIfG alum Lukas Haffert took up his post as Professor of Comparative Politics at the SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy of the University of Bremen on April 1, 2026. Having embarked on his academic career at the MPIfG and earning his PhD from the University of Cologne, he has since gone on to research and teach at the European University Institute in Florence, Harvard University, the University of Zurich, and most recently at the University of Geneva. Central to Haffert’s research is the question of why states respond differently to similar challenges, despite facing comparable conditions. Among his main research interests are tax and fiscal policy as well as political geography, and in particular urban-rural divides. In Bremen he will continue working on two projects on inequalities in urban and rural representation in the political system. Another of his interests is in the political consequences of deindustrialization. There is a biographical dimension to this topic for Haffert, who grew up in Germany’s Ruhrgebiet and experienced the structural transformation of the region at first hand. Lukas Haffert joins another MPIfG alum already in Bremen, Timur Ergen, now the director of the Institute Labour and Economy (IAW) at the same university.